Kasey Kahne proved that he and RPM teammate, Paul Menard, are more than lame ducks as he grabbed the pole for the Kansas 400.
In winning his third pole of the year, at a speed of 174.644mph, Kahne edged Menard who turned a lap of 174.469mph around the 1.5 mile oval.
It was Kahne’s 19th career pole and five of his 11 wins have come from the pole position.
“To me it shows that myself and Paul and our teams are still really interested in running strong and not backing down at all just because we have other things we are going to do in the future. At the same time it shows that RPM is giving us great race cars. Roush Yates is giving us great (Ford) engines. We have the package, we just need to put it all together,” Kahne said.
Jeff Gordon who starts third, was the fastest of the Chasers in a Chevrolet. It’s make or break time for Gordon who is winless since the Texas Motor Speedway in April 2009.
“I'm just so proud of Steve (Letarte, his crew chief) and all these guys for the adjustments and the day we've had. We just have not been qualifying good lately and it's something we've put a lot of effort in and today finally things went our way and man, that's like a pole to me right now," Gordon said.
Points leader Denny Hamlin will start 12th and Jimmie Johnson, currently second in the points will take the green from 21rst place.
Patrick Carpentier from Joliette, Quebec will start 36th. Joe Nemechek, Mike Bliss and Jason Leffler failed to make the 43-car field.
Also, on Saturday, motocycle legend, Ricky Carmichael, will attempt to make his first start in the Nationwide Series race.
In winning his third pole of the year, at a speed of 174.644mph, Kahne edged Menard who turned a lap of 174.469mph around the 1.5 mile oval.
It was Kahne’s 19th career pole and five of his 11 wins have come from the pole position.
“To me it shows that myself and Paul and our teams are still really interested in running strong and not backing down at all just because we have other things we are going to do in the future. At the same time it shows that RPM is giving us great race cars. Roush Yates is giving us great (Ford) engines. We have the package, we just need to put it all together,” Kahne said.
Jeff Gordon who starts third, was the fastest of the Chasers in a Chevrolet. It’s make or break time for Gordon who is winless since the Texas Motor Speedway in April 2009.
“I'm just so proud of Steve (Letarte, his crew chief) and all these guys for the adjustments and the day we've had. We just have not been qualifying good lately and it's something we've put a lot of effort in and today finally things went our way and man, that's like a pole to me right now," Gordon said.
Points leader Denny Hamlin will start 12th and Jimmie Johnson, currently second in the points will take the green from 21rst place.
Patrick Carpentier from Joliette, Quebec will start 36th. Joe Nemechek, Mike Bliss and Jason Leffler failed to make the 43-car field.
Also, on Saturday, motocycle legend, Ricky Carmichael, will attempt to make his first start in the Nationwide Series race.